The Invasion Of The Mary Sues
by PowerPen
Summary: They're coming. There is nothing anybody can do to stop them. The ultimate evil will be coming... sooner than you think. [Discontinued: See 'The Mary Sue Chronicles I: The Invasion']
1. Introduction

**Disclaimer (Almost forgot this thing!): **K.A own the Animorphs and all related characters. I own nothing. Nothing at all. Sniff.**  
**

**THE INVASION OF THE MARY SUES**

_We can't tell you who we are, or where we live. It's too risky, and we've got to be careful.  
Really careful. So we don't trust anyone. Because if the Mary Sues find us. . . well, we just  
won't let them find us. The thing is, everyone is in real big trouble. Yeah, even you._

_**  
The Mary Sues are invading earth.**_

_** Five kids are given the power to save the world.**_

**But they're not who you think they are.**


	2. Mary Who?

Mary stood outside of the school building, taking quick, deep breaths. _You can do this, Mary! _She told herself, and flung open the doors.

She walked quickly down the hallway, her black shoes clicking on the tiles. Many male eyes glanced at her, and then did a double take. It wasn't surprising. Mary was used to the eager looks she got from most boys. Her long black hair, thin stature, and strangely silver eyes gave her an outlandish, elven appearance. Hurrying past all of the staring people, she put her slender, pale hand on the doorknob to the Vice Principal's office and pushed it slowly open.

"Hello." Vice Principal Chapman stood up to greet her. He looked her up and down. "Are you lost? The ninth grade is two floor down."

Mary smiled, showing thousands of shiny white teeth. "People say that I look younger than I really am."

"Well," Chapman smiled warmly. "What brings you to my office today?"

"I just transferred here. I was told to come here for instructions." Mary said.

"From where?" Chapman asked. Mary hesitated.

"Canada!" She blurted, mentally cursing herself.

Chapman bent down over a stack of folders. After a few moments of searching, he looked up again.

"We don't have any Marys from Canada." Chapman said. "Last name?"

Mary knew that nobody could be allowed to know her last name. It would blow her cover._ Distraction,_ She thought desperately. _I need a distraction!_

Suddenly, Chapman's scalding hot coffee toppled off of the desk and splashed all over his jacket.

"Damn!" Chapman swore in pain. He tore off his jacket, swearing more as his fingers burned. Mary winced sympathetically and slipped out the door.

"Hey!" Mary spun around to see a cute, short, kid sitting on the bench outside the office. His black hair and olive skin was sweaty, but he was grinning.

"Um, Hi?" Mary said. Suddenly, a feeling coursed through her. Somehow, this boys was very important in her life. The only time she had felt the feeling this strongly was ten years ago. . . After the accident.

"What'd Chapman bust you?" The kid smirked, yanking her away from dark thoughts. "I, personally, am sitting here just because I made my pal Jake chase me all over the room for his English paper. It's not my fault that I used up all the class time, and, consequently, didn't have to turn in my English paper. Which just didn't happen to exist at the time."

The kid looked her up and down. "You...You look like the kind of girl who'd be given detention for being too beautiful." He smiled. Not a smirk, which seemed to be his natural face expression.

Mary took his hand. "I think we'll be seeing a lot of each other, Marco."

She walked off, leaving Marco to wonder how she had known his name.


	3. Emotion Commotion

_The building where humans seek wisdom is infiltrated._

_Are you positive?_

_I have merged myself seamlessly with their society. It will be as if I were here forever._

_Is that the end of your report?_

_No. I have urgent news. There is another invasion of earth. Humans are unaware of this one, too. It is being conducted by beings called yeerks. You'll have to send another agent to deal with it. I have unfortunately tied myself to the human world._

_I will dispatch one immediately._

_Agent 56 out._

_------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _

Mary jogged down dirt road, wondering why she was here. After school, something had told her to follow the short, black girl sitting next to her off the bus. So now she was ducking behind trees, trying not to be seen. It was almost impossible, as the road to wherever they were going was practically bare.

The girl suddenly turned around, and Mary froze behind a maple tree. The girl looked left and right, and then spun and hurried left.

Mary crept after her, trying not to crunch the leaves._ Voices! _Something told her, a second before she heard them herself. Mary threw herself to the side and landed in a foul smelling pile of something.

"Well, that doesn't make sense!" A voice said. "Maybe you were mistaken."

"I'm sure somebody was following me." The girls voice said loudly. They were getting closer.

"Well, I don't see anything." Another voice said. Marco! Mary was puzzled. What was he doing here?

(I do!) A voice yelled in her head. (Lying in the horse manure!)

Horse manure? Mary shuddered, but crawled forwards, trying to get away from the voices.

"Ah!" She was yanked up roughly by her hair. She was twisted painfully around and was looking into an angry female face. Her eyes were dangerous blue, and her hair looked wild and windswept despite the breezeless day.

"Well, well, well." The girl sneered._ Rachel_, Her mind whispered. "Hello, Miss Manure. What brings you here today?"

"Rachel, calm down." A voice said. _Jake_. "Put her down."

She looked at the other three people standing around her. _Cas_sie. _Tobias. _And..._Axim-Phi_-_Aximil-Phil-_

"Ah!" She grabbed her head as it exploded into pain. She kept staring at the oddly beautiful boy standing in front of her, focusing through the red haze. _Aximilli. Philup. __Aximilli! Philup! __AXIMILLI! PHILUP!_

Two pairs of arms lifted her up, and her head was turned away from the boy. The red haze cleared.

"Are you ok?" Jake asked. She fell over and threw up.

"Yuck." Marco commented. "How about we leave this increasingly gross area?"

They all walked towards the barn, Jake and the boy with two names supporting her.

Mary let them take her into the barn. She was too overwhelmed and in too much pain to resist. She felt herself drop onto a pile of hay, and she just let herself lay there.

"Do you need help?" Marco said, loudly and slowly. Mary looked at the blurry face above her. "Uuuuh." She moaned incomprehensibly.

"I want to know why you're here." Jake said coldly.

Mary closed her eyes._ Love, Love, Love. _She thought.

Jake's expression suddenly turned gentle, and slightly goofy. "Do you-" He stammered. "Would you like- to go out with me?"

Cassie glared at Mary angrily, and Mary felt a chill run down her body. Mary closed her eyes and thought. _Like, Like, Like._

Cassie's expression flickered for a moment, but reverted quickly to hatred again.

"Yes, of course." Mary said, grinning evily. Jake led her out the barn, with six pairs of eyes staring at him in surprise.


	4. Anger Management

**I might be switching back and forth between first person and third person, so be prepared. Right now I'm switching into Cassie first person. Sorry about the short chapters, but I need to do rapid flipping between different POVs.  
**

** CASSIE**

She was so dead.

I stood, shaking with rage so powerful that I didn't even know I could feel it. I stared at the doorway, shocked and hurt but mostly angry. How _dare _she take Jake! They had known each other for about five minutes, and they were going out! Just like that! My eyesight was actually blurred with red.

"Cassie..." Rachel said hesitantly.

I turned around, trying not to show the anger I felt. "Yes, Rachel?"

"Calm down, girl." Rachel said. But she didn't understand! I couldn't calm down until I had my hands wrapped around Mary's neck and I was squeezing, squeezing, squeezing-

"Cassie!" Rachel yelled. She grabbed me by the shoulders and looked me in the face. Tobias and Marco stood quietly to the side. "I know what's going through your head. Those thoughts aren't yours, Cassie. You don't think like that! Be you, Cassie. Not...Not-"

"You." I said quietly, feeling all of the hatred evaporate off of me like a thick, greasy cloud of smoke. I shuddered. How could I have been thinking those things? Those horrible thoughts!

"Me." Rachel said, letting me go very suddenly. "Not me."

Rachel turned and walked out the barn. Tobias wordlessly flew out after her.

"Well, It's just you and me." Marco said, lifting himself off of his hay bale. "So are you going to tell me what's going on?"

"What?" I asked, bewildered.

"Rachel's right. You don't think those type of thoughts. Anybody could see that you were ready to murder Mary." Marco explained. "But the real you weren't. What happened?"

I hesitated. "When Mary looked at me, Her eyes looked...strange. Like-"

"Like you were going to drown in them." Marco finished. "And, now that I think of it, at school I thought that Mary was beautiful. Now, I realize that she wasn't that good looking. She's changing our emotions, somehow. I know it. What's is she, A new alien? Some trick of Drodes?"

People say I'm good at figuring out people's emotions. Sometimes I don't think I'm that great at it. But at that moment I knew exactly what Mary was. I was positive. "Pure evil." I said simply. "Pure evil."


	5. You Got Sued

**A/N: Hope that this chapter makes up for the really short ones earlier! Decided to take the time and give this story that attention that it deserves. **

**Jeer-Yee Two**

My name is Jeer-Yee Two. And I was in big trouble.

I swam my way over to the pier, tensely waiting for the host's ear to enter the pool. Millions of thoughts raced through my head.

The ripple came! I scrunched my way over to the ear at about an 1 Iph (Inch per hour). I had had far better bodies. I'm not talking about controlling a Hork-Bajir, Taxxon, or even human. I've been far better things. Been, not infested. The truth is, I'm not even a yeerk.

I'm an Ary-Oo, The race that embodies perfection. We are absolutely perfect in every way. Flawless. We have no weaknesses. And that is why all of the other races will have no defense when we invade them. They will be crushed beneath-

(Jeer-Yee Two!)

I snapped out of my thoughts. I had been in the host body for about two minutes without realizing it. That happens some times. All of the other races are tied down to fabric of reality, while we Ary-Oo have broken free from it, and the inevitable laws that come with it.

"Yes, Visser three?" I asked, feigning fear of this commander that all of his subordinates share. An Ary-Oo knows no fear.

(I want your report on the andalite bandits!) He roared. (You said that you had information!)

This is why I was in deep doo-doo. Mary Sue, a low ranking Ary-Oo scout, had telepathically sent me the names of all the 'andalite bandits'. Unfortunately, my host mind had intercepted part of the transmission, and but assumed it came from me. She was very excited, she thought that we were going to get a big promotion for finding the andalite bandits. She was voluntary, and she had told the Visser that we knew the identities of the andalite bandits. I couldn't afford to give them out at the moment, they were crucial to the overall plan. Hence the problem.

"The Andalite Bandits-" I stalled, reaching out with my mind. "They are-"

(What?) Visser snapped.

Suddenly I felt Mary's mind connect to my own, finally. It is so difficult to link minds with a lowly scout. Their powers aren't fully developed enough.

_I need the Andalite Bandits to attack the the yeerk pool, _I muttered.

_Why?_, She asked. I fumed. It wasn't for a scout to ask questions.

_Have you lost control of your projection?_, I snapped. _You do not ask questions, you just obey!_

_Alright!_, She grumbled. _I think I can get them to attack tomorrow._

I broke the connection, not bothering with pleasantries. As if a warrrior had to be polite to a scout!

"Attacking on Sunday." I said to the Visser with false confidence ringing in my voice. "The Andalite Bandits will be attacking on Sunday!"

I left a gleeful Visser Three planning the demise of his enemies, while I jogged up the yeerk pool stairs. The body was young and fit, yet she was panting when we reached the top. I had chosen this body especially to be the same age as Mary Sue. Mary's telepathy was horrible at the best of times, and communication was crucial. We could communicate with mouth-sounds, and we would look less suspicious if we were the same age and sex.

I emerged from the yeerk pool and into the bathroom of a movie theater. The owner nodded to me as I walked out.

My inner voice told me to look up. I obeyed, and saw a red-tailed hawk circling overhead._  
_

_Tobias,_ My mind whispered. An andalite bandit name! I scanned the crowd, pushing my mind to it's limit.

_Marcia. Ron. Luke. Josie. Benny. Tommy. Marco. Kenny. J- _

Wait! I flipped my eye's back and aimed at the short boy I had seen. _Marco. _My mind whispered. Shit.

I ducked behind the corner of the building. My cover _could not _be blown. If the andalite bandits attacked now, Visser three would try to kill me. I could easily take him out, but that would arouse some serious suspicion. So I waited, waited and watched.

After about five minutes, Marco walked over to a magazine stand and picked up a batman comic. A tall blonde girl joined him, and they started chatting. _Rachel_.

A few seconds later, a short black girl entered my sights. She headed for the magazine stall and-

_DUCK!_ My mind bellowed. I dropped to the ground swiftly, and saw the shadow of a red tailed hawk pass overhead. I stayed low, waiting.

Meanwhile, my host mind was blubbering at me. (What are you doing?) She cried. (Why are you spying on these kids? We should be back with Visser three, planning the ambush of the Andalite bandits!)

My god, She was so annoying. I would have to dispose of her when I got the chance. I was eagerly contemplating this, when four kids entered the theater. _Marco. Cassie. Rachel. Ax. Phillup. Ax. PHILLUP! AX! PHILLUP! _

I fell over, dazed. But then I felt myself stand up. The host! I was dimly aware of her taking us inside of the theater, determinedly heading for the yeerk pool. It was time to take a serious risk.

(You! Listen to me.) I said to my host. (Those four are the andalite bandits!)

She felt the truth in my statement, and she was not stupid. She came to same conclusion that I had. If the Andalite Bandits attacked today instead of tomorrow, Visser three would make sure that her head rolled.

"Damn!" She swore, a rather bad habit she had picked up from me. She yanked out her dracon beam, and went into the movie that they had.

It was dark, and it took a moment for our eyes to adjust. By the light of the flickering screen, we could barely make out the group moving towards the projection room.

Suddenly, Ax/Phillup looked back at us, and motioned to his friends. They all dropped into the sea of heads.

"Double damn!" She said angrily. "What now?"

I gave her some brief instructions, and then crawled out of her ear. I was blind and deaf again, but not for long. It was time to unleash the full power of the Ary-Oo.

I called out for a link to one of the sub-leaders. The leader couldn't be bothered for something as mundane as this. Suddenly, I felt my mind meld with another. Sub-Leader 876.

_Yes? _The coldness in his voice was so intense that I shivered.

_Requesting new projection_. I said. _Combat situation._

I readied myself for the new form, but instead got a voice yelling at me.

_You moron, I can't give you a new projection here!, _He bellowed. I was shocked. _You are in a reality field! You are grounded! Repeat, You are grounded! Get out of there, Jeer-Yee! _

I was grounded! How had that happened? We Ary-Oo have broken free of reality, which in a quantum-mechanical way is a sort of floor, and we soar above it. The building, or something in the building, was projecting a reality field that had caused me to fall towards reality, and my realistic levels were becoming dangerously high. If I didn't get away from this field soon, I was going to crash. Reality would get a firm grip on me, and it wouldn't be letting go this time.

I felt the connection with the sub-leader break. My powers were no longer strong enough to support a link to the Ary-Oo home world. But they were still strong enough for a simple short-distance connection. It was time for an even bigger risk.

_You! _I snapped weakly at my host, fumbling for her name. _Jessica! Get me outta here, pronto! Please! _

I was unconscious by the time two hands picked me up and hurried me from the building.

--------------------------------------------------------

**MARCO **

Okay, can you explain something to me? Cuz none of us can figure this out. Tobias found Jake and Mary at a movie theater. We concoct a simple plan to get a moment alone with Jake and warn him about Mary. We all meet up in front of the theater, and go inside. We spot Jake, and go towards him. Nothing to do with the yeerks, right? Right. So why the hell does some chick suddenly whip out a dracon beam and start shooting the crap out of us?

I didn't think you knew either. This is what happened:

We moved towards Mary and Jake, planning on grabbing Jake and whisking him away before Mary knew what happened. We paused behind them, and I was just about to grab him, when Ax said "I believe there is somebody following us."

We all ducked simultaneously, and the chair in front of us exploded. Rachel caught the full force of it, and was knocked backwards by about five rows. I looked up slowly, and saw this hot-looking girl with a dracon beam. She was wearing leather from head to toe, looking like she just stepped out of a _Matrix_ movie.

"Stand up!" She said. Lots of people were stampeding the exit, and I resisted the urge to do the same. Instead I slowly rose, with my hands in the air. Jake turned around and glared at me.

"Marco!" He bellowed. "You're ruining my date!"

That was when I knew. There was no way the real Jake could see his best friend with a dracon beam pointed at him and come out with 'You're ruining my date'. Jake had been bewitched, or whatever.

"Actually." Mary said, smiling a wicked smile that made my heart leap in spite of itself, "It's called Sued. Mary Sued, to be exact."

She punched me in the stomach, an astonishingly strong punch. I toppled over, holding my stomach, waiting.

"Get up!" The girl snarled, waving the dracon beam at me. I just lay there, groaning.

I felt someone next to me move slightly. Cassie!

"Wait." I hissed. I threw in another groan.

"Get up!" The girl yelled.

I leapt to my feet, at the exact same time as Cassie. Both Mary and leather girl looked surprised. We both lunged, with an unspoken agreement that Cassie had Mary.

I rammed leather girl hard in the stomach (Yes, I wanted some payback.), and she toppled over with a satisfying bang. Cassie dove at Mary's back. There was no way Mary could dodge, But Mary spun around like she had spidey-sense, and hurled herself into the air. Cassie shot underneath her and crashed into some chairs.

Meanwhile, me and leather girl were wrestling underneath the seats. She was trying to get her dracon beam, and I obviously didn't want her to have it. She had me in a half-nelson hold, and we rolled out into the aisle. As she grounded my face into the carpet, I noticed a gray slug writhing on the ground, clearly in mortal agony. I was just about to put it out of it's misery, when Mary reached down and snatched it up. That girl was involved with the yeerks, too? I didn't put too much thought into it at the moment. Instead, I concentrated on getting my leg away from leather girl before she broke it.

"Argh!" I yelped, as she twisted my ankle painfully. I brought my other leg crashing into her face, and she stumbled backwards clutching her nose. Blood streamed out from between her fingers.

"Freeze!" A man yelled. Oh, so that's what happened to the dracon beam. He was an old man, around fifty or so. I had to remind myself that he was a yeerk as I launched myself at him. This was going to be like beating up on someone's grandfather.

But somebody caught my leg and sent me crashing to the floor. I groaned and twisted around, expecting to see leather girl. But it was Jake who stood over me. Jake, my best pal. Jake, my buddy since forever. His face was contorted with anger, and he was about to bring his sneaker crashing down on my face.

Three things happened at once.

Cassie dove and grabbed Jake's arm. Jake got a shocked look on his face, like he had just touched a live electric wire. The old man fired the dracon beam at me.

Jake twisted his foot away from my face, and did a spinning kick. His foot connected with the dracon beam, and the shot went wild. The dracon beam went soaring across the room, and the man glared at Jake angrily.

"You earthlings are so bothersome." He snarled.

"Yeah, well you yeerks aren't exactly popular either." I shot back, climbing to my feet.

"Yeerks." He laughed softly. "I am not a yeerk."

"What are you, then?" Jake said in his soft, silky, dangerous voice.

"You can call me Gary." He grinned, showing one thousand perfect teeth. "Gary Stu."

He walked calmly out of the theater. We stood alone amid the wreckage of the theater.

"What is going on? Who are these people?" I said, as we scanned the place for Rachel and Ax.

"Mary Sue." Cassie said slowly. "I think I heard that name before."

"I know I heard it, and Gary Stu, too." Jake said. "Something my mom or dad said. I'll check it out."

We searched silently for a while. After a few minutes, Cassie found Ax with a large lump on his head, and Jake found Rachel knocked out inside of the movie screen. I found somebody else.

"Hey guys." I called out, standing over a whimpering leather girl. The old man's shot hadn't gone as wild as I'd thought. She was holding a large burn on her side, with blood oozing out between her fingers.

"Help." She muttered, barely above a whisper.

"Uh-uh." I said dryly. "Sorry, but my mom taught me to never help people who tried to kill me."

"The yeerk's gone." She moaned quietly. I clearly remembered the yeerk on the floor, yet something didn't ring true. Cassie also had a suspicious look on her face. She can smell lies a mile away.

"Don't trust her." We both said at the same time. Jake gave us both murderous looks, and knelt down besides her.

"Cassie, what if she's telling the truth?" Jake asked. "Can you just let her die?"

Cassie got the look on her face that means she's arguing with herself. I knew which side of her was going to win out, and I groaned inwardly.


	6. Mrs Berenson Helps Out

**JESSIE **

My name is Jessica. You can call me Jessie. It's what everyone calls me. Except for my mother, who insists on calling me Jessica.

Jessica is not me. Jessica sounds like a normal girl who has friends and has crushes and didn't voluntarily let a slug crawl into her head. Jessie sounds like somebody out in the Wild West, having adventures and shooting train robbers. Or being one.

Which name fits me better? I used to be a Jessica, with a normal, boring life. I wanted adventures, and the Sharing promised me that I would have lots of adventures, if I let them put a yeerk in my head. I don't want you feeling bad for me; I knew what was going to happen. They described exactly what it was going to be like, and I accepted anyway. I'm not sorry. You can hate me for it if you want; I just want you to know exactly who it is you're hating. Who knows, maybe you'll even understand why I did what I did.

So now I'm in the middle of an intergalactic battle. I'm firing laser beams and dodging them. I've fought dozens of strange creatures. I'm doing what I've always wanted to be doing: Having adventures. I've even gone into space a few times.

I think that I've earned the right to be called Jessie.

But I certainly didn't feel like a Jessie at the moment. I had woken up, lying on some grass, with the three andalite bandits surrounding me, still in human morph. I could feel my chest wrapped in bandages, and my left arm was strapped in place.While it was in that position, I could barely move, let alone fight. I was at their mercy.

I didn't like that.

They were staring at me, and I realized that I had been too quiet for too long. I had to talk my way out of this one, not fight. I thought quickly.

"Ow. What happened?" I said, realizing something else. They had fallen for my lie about the yeerk! 

"I don't know." The short boy said, squinting at me. "How about you tell me?

"But-" I frowned and touched my head. "I-I don't know what happened? Who are you?"

There was a worried look in the girl's eyes. "I'm Cassie." She said, helping me to my feet. "Are you feeling okay?"

"She's obviously fine." The short boy snapped. "If you guys want to do this stupid thing, I'm at least going to get some information out of her. What are the yeerks up to?"

"Huh?" I shot him an innocent look.

"We both saw the dracon beam." He said. "Don't play innocent with me."

"Dracon beam?" I said, faking a puzzled expression.

"Oh. You're going to pretend that you have amnesia or something. Right." He nodded casually, clearly not believing me.

I let him win that one.

The tall boy had to hurry home and look up something, so Cassie and the other boy took me to her house. She had a house! I didn't know how the andalite bandits had gotten enough money to do that. It was far away from the rest of the town; it even had a forest a few yards away! Typical andalite, they hated being closed in. I guess that they ran around in there at night. Me, I had grown up in the city all my life, and this rustic place unnerved me.

"Come on inside." Cassie said kindly. It wasn't her real, andalite name, but it would do for now.

I moved towards the house door, but the boy grabbed my arm. "Uh-uh." He said, smirking slightly.

"Marco…" Cassie said warningly.

"She can sleep in the barn." Marco said. "It's safer – for everyone."

They walked me around the side of the house, and led me to- get this – a barn. They expected me to sleep in _there_?

Turns out that they did. They led me inside, and I nearly passed out. Not from the sight of rows and rows of cages, filled with every sort of animals that you can imagine. Not from the various wildlife scuttling past my feet (Though that did creep me out.). It was something else, more primal.

It was the stench. The putrid stench of wet animals, combined with the funk of assorted manure types, with an unhealthy dose of natural wilderness smell.

I gagged, and Marco smirked again. "What's the matter, a bit smelly?"

I covered my mouth, not bothering to respond. Cassie tried not to look offended, but she failed.

"You'll be sleeping up there." Cassie said, leading me over to the hay loft. I stared.

"Up there?" I asked incredulously. I had at least expected a bed. "You know, I have a home I could go to. There we believe in using a little something called beds."

"Yeah, we could let you go to this home, Which you shouldn't even remember, If I may point that out- except we don't trust you." Marco said bluntly. "Now get into the bed like a good little girl, and maybe Cassie will read you a bed time story."

Ignoring him and the pain in my side, I dragged myself up the ladder and flopped down into the hay. This was going to be the worst night ever.

Cassie left, with Marco trailing behind her. I hesitated, and then called out. "Why not?"

Marco paused in the doorway. "Why not what?"

"Why don't you guys trust me?" I asked, settling down into the hay as best as I could.

Marco sighed. "You know the hay where you're lying?" I nodded. "Well, A while back there was this kid named David. He lost his family, lost his house, lost everything. He knew our secret, and we tried to trust him. He lay right where you are now, thinking about how to betray us. You want to know why we don't trust you? Blame David."

And as I slept fitfully, surrounded by rough hay and smelly animals, I did.

---------------------------------------------

**JAKE**

OK, for the record, we aren't idiots. Me and Cassie both trusted that girl as far as we could throw her. Marco trusted her about as far as he could blow her. But if there was any chance at all that she was worth saving, it was a risk we would have to take.

After contacting Tobias, Rachel, and Ax, I walked back to my house. I got home in time for dinner, for once. My mom was just finishing putting everything on the plates when I came in.

"Great, honey, your home." She smiled. My mom is really big on us all eating together at the table. "Go wash up really quick, and call your brother for dinner."

I jogged up the stairs and ducked into my bedroom. I paused in there long enough to grab a pair of clean clothes, and then headed for the bathroom.

"Hey, Tom!" I hollered, banging on his door on the way past. "It's time to eat!"

"Fine, midget!" He yelled back. "Be quiet, I'm on the phone!"

I changed and splashed my face and hands with cold water, and then raced downstairs. My dad was coming out of the living room, and I almost bowled him over.

"Hey, whoa there, Jake." He said, grabbing me for balance. "Where's the fire? Don't tell me your mother burned the chicken again."

"Ha, Ha, Ha." My mom said dryly from the kitchen. "I heard that."

We walked into the kitchen, and pulled up a seat. Tom came down a few minutes later, and we began eating. Dad started talking about his job, and how good the food was. Tom joked about how terrible the chicken tasted.

"Hey, dad." I interjected casually, nibbling a tiny piece of broccoli. "Do you know anything about, um, Mary Sues?"

"Mary Sues?" My dad looked surprised. "As in a name?"

"Did you say Mary Sues?" My mom asked. I nodded eagerly. "Yes, it's a writing term. Why, what for?"

"For my english report." I lied smoothly. "Could you tell me about them?"

"Well," My mom said, "A Mary-Sue is a character that is very unrealistic. It's usually a super version of the author, of how they would like to be. They are a really horrible type of character, they tend to suck the realism out of everyone and everything they come in contact with. Most Mary-Sues can be found in fanfiction, where original characters fall in love with them, They save the day, and nobody lives happily ever after except for them."

"Thanks." I said calmly. I was really anything but calm. "That'll be a really big help."

So we were dealing with real life Mary Sues. Know the enemy, Jake.

"Is there anything else?" I inquired.

"I'm sure I have a few good books on the subject." My mom said. "I'll show you after dinner."

That's how I ended up reading a bunch of my mom's books on writing late into the night. As I learned more than I any human being should know about Mary-Sues, I was dazed, awed, and disgusted. But mostly disgusted.


	7. Hunting for Jessie

**A/N: _This is slightly AU as I gave the Animorphs all of the morphs that they acquired throughout the entire series, but set it before the yeerks knew who they were._ And thanks to all of my reviewers! Wanted to let you know I appreciate people like you, even if I can't personally respond to every review. Reviews are the fuel that keeps my pen writing and my fingers typing. If you want this story to be finished and you want to be thanked, please review! This story also has no pre-defined ending, so any good suggestions you make in your reviews could change the whole direction that it's headed. Probably should have called this Author's Paragraph, but, eh, who cares? Read on...**

**TOBIAS **

I wafted lazily over the treetops, making wide circles around my meadow. It was a nice, sunny day, and the thermals were beautiful. No flapping required whatsoever. You have no idea how sweet that is.

I casually scanned the ground. There! My sharp hawk eyes caught the flicker of movement in the grass. A squirrel! I went halfway around my circle, and then let myself drop. Hurtling towards the grounds, talons raked forward, I closed in on him.

The squirrel never knew what hit him. I had made sure that I was flying towards the sun, and he didn't see my shadow until it was too late.

_Human mind and hawk body_, I thought, tearing into the juicy flesh. _A formidable combination._

Clop, Clop. Clop, Clop.

I recognized the noise. Rapidly finishing my meal, I flapped into my favorite tree just as Ax leapt into view. I was glad I had heard him. For some reason, I always feel guilty eating in front of him, like I was it was my fault that nature had designed the hawk to be a predator. He ate grass, and I killed and ate living, breathing creatures. _Yeah, Tobias_, I thought,_ Nothing to be ashamed of. _

(Hey, Ax-man.) I called. Ax looked up at me with an Andalite smile.

(Hello, Tobias.) Ax greeted. (I am glad that I found you. Prince Jake requires us to be at the barn in fifteen of your minutes.)

(Ah-) I was about to comment that it was everyone's minutes, but decided it just wasn't worth the effort. (Never mind. Get you feathers on and meet me in the sky.)

I took off, aiming towards Cassie's barn. Pretty soon, a northern harrier wafted into the air a few hundred yards behind me. We flew in silence, both of us wondering about the meeting.

After a while, we drifted over a large, muddy field, where Cassie was working. The sad thing is, she was stomping around in the mud in what she usually wore: Overalls.

(Hey, Cassie.) I said lightly. (Fine line between work clothes and play clothes, huh?)

Cassie looked up and waved, showing she wasn't offended.

(Actually,) A voice called out above me. (The last time I checked, it was a hi-contrast black-on-white line, with warnings every five feet. And I heard they were redoing it so that it glowed in the dark, too.)

I glanced up, and saw a majestic bald eagle soaring overhead. Rachel, of course.

(Didn't they put up those little yellow signs that say 'Cassie crossing'?) An osprey said, swooping out of nowhere. (She crossed the line so much that they just gave in. They put those up so that the fashion police didn't drag her away.)

(Who is this they that you speak of? Who are the fashion police?) Ax wondered.

(They're people who would report us to a loony bin if they saw our morphing outfits.) Marco explained, deciding to answer Ax's second question. (Frankly, I would report us, too.)

"If we're done talking about our wardrobes?" Cassie said pointedly, motioning towards the barn. "Jake's waiting."

(Oh, no, we have kept our leader waiting!) Marco exclaimed, swooping inside. (Our heads will roll!)

I flapped in after him and landed on the rafters. Jake was indeed inside, resting on a hay bale. From his expression, it looked like Marco wasn't far off the mark.

"Where have you been?" He said, leaping up. "This is a serious emergency!"

(What's wrong, Big Jake?) Marco asked mockingly, his features beginning to melt.

"Jessie is gone." Jake snapped.

"Sha uuwwuu ongh!" Rachel growled. Her mouth was a half formed monstrosity.

(That is the human female dressed in deceased cow skin, correct?) Ax asked.

I'm the one most used to Ax lingo, so I got it first. (The chick in leather.) I translated.

"Yeah, Cassie talked to her last night." Jake growled. "Found out a bunch of stuff."

"So, you were having yourselves a girly sleepover." Marco pouted. "Why wasn't I invited?"

Cassie ignored him. "It wasn't exactly a party. She was very hostile, and also a very good actor. It was hard to get much out of her."

"Come on, let me see your toes." Marco laughed, tugging playfully at Cassie's boot. "I'll bet they're sparkly pink."

"Marco!" Jake snapped. "Focus. We need to find her, and fast. She had a big head start, but her dose of pain killer should be wearing off, slowing her down."

(Unless she's not moving under her own power.) I said, speaking what I thought was the obvious.

Evidently not. Jake turned around slowly to look at me. "What is it that you're suggesting?"

(Well, she's an escaped host.) I said slowly. (Surely the yeerks would want to get her back. Maybe they kidnapped her?)

"I need a way of knowing for sure." Jake said, pacing up and down. "Anybody at all?"

(Prince Jake,) Ax said, speaking up for the first time. (If somebody kidnapped this female, they would most likely leave a scent.)

"Yes!" Jake said, pointing at Ax. "Great. Anyone with a dog morph, do it. Everybody else, stand to the side."

I fluttered down to the ground and focused on the German Shepard DNA inside of my bloodstream. I felt the changes begin, and watched them on Jake and Marco.

Jake started off with this strangely awesome golden coat of fur shooting out of his skin. Then he dropped onto all fours as his joints reversed direction. His nose turned black and leathery, and his fingers melted into his hands. His eyes turned a golden shade, and then his face stretched out to form a snout. All in all, it wasn't as disgusting as it could have been.

"Wow." Cassie nodded, evidently agreeing with me. "We must be getting better at this. That didn't look half as bad as normal."

(Uh-uh.) Jake shook his head. (Don't say that. I'll bet my demorph makes everyone barf.)

"Don't worry, Marco." Rachel said. "You still looked ugly."

(I didn't hear you saying anything about Tobias.) Marco shot back.

I realized with a start that I was already German Shepard. I guess that their morphing distracted me.

(Let's go, Tobias Holmes!) Marco said, with a little poodle yip. He began sniffing around the barn.

I followed suite, and was amazed with the sophistication of the dog nose. It was like watching a security camera videotape, only in smells. I knew exactly what happened.

(This is awesome!) I said. Me, Marco, and Jake relayed information to them, like a doggy style play-by-play.

(This Cassie smell is stale, that means she left at around 9:30.) Jake said.

(Uh-oh.) I said, gagging. (I smell Taxxon.)

(Probably the hunter Taxxons.) Ax commented for the sake of Cassie and Rachel. We already knew that from the smell, and were too far gone in our doggy world to clarify.

(Getting a strong, concentrated Hork-Bajir scent.) Marco said worriedly. He followed the smell over to the ladder, and then tried to scramble up it. (Legs are too short. Care to give it a try, Tobias?)

"Legs are too short?" Rachel cracked. "Guess you must feel right at home, Marco."

(My German Shepard is too heavy.) I said. (This task goes to the Jake man.)

Jake agilely raced Homer's body up the ladder. (Hork-Bajir stops halfway up, Jessie smell meets it. I'm guessing she went to the Hork-Bajir.)

"Or she could have been forced." Cassie reminded Jake. "Maybe the Hork-Bajir pointed Dracon beams at her."

(Yeah.) Jake leapt down from the ladder with a grace that belied his dog body. (That explains the mixed Hork-Bajir/Jessie smell I've been smelling near the doorway.)

(I'm getting a smell of leather under moderate friction.) I said, sniffing madly.

"Leather under moderate friction?" Rachel laughed. "You guys sound like the dog equivalent of nerds."

(Dragged.) Marco said suddenly.

(Pardon?) Ax asked.

(Her boots dragged across the floor!) Marco said, letting out an excited poodly yip. (She was dragged, and her boots were dragged on the floor. She was kidnapped, guys. And I sure don't need this nose to figure out where.)

None of us did. Jessie was being taken to the yeerk pool.

**RACHEL **

Jake is a smart boy. He makes millions of life and death decision on almost a daily basis, and somehow we are all still alive. If I made a list of the smartest people I've known in my life, Jake would probably be at the top.

Unless I wrote it at this very moment. Then I would be so overwhelmed by the stupidity of the decision he had just made that I would probably stick him second to last. Dead last is reserved for Marco. See, we had to get to the yeerk pool in a hurry, and only one thing would cut it: A car.

That would be fine and dandy, but Jake decided who would drive. You guessed it: Marco.

(I still don't see why Marco gets to drive.) I grumbled, powering my eagle wings. You see, Cassie's parents had taken the car to go to this animal reservation convention. Don't ask. We were looking for a car that we could, err, 'temporarily borrow' .

(I still don't think we should steal some poor person's car.) Cassie snapped. (You know Marco is just going to total it.)

(Exactly!) I crowed. (So why don't you back me up, Cassie? Why shouldn't I drive?)

(Marco. Has. Experience.) Jake said.

(Well, he obviously leaves it at home when we go on missions.) I snorted. (What's your next excuse?)

(Marco has a humanoid morph that can take a lot of damage.) Jake said impatiently. (You would have to drive as a human. Let's say that Marco crashes, which he probably will. He as the driver will take the main impact, but he'll be a gorilla and live. If you drive, you have a far less chance of crashing, but if you do, you have a far lower chance of surviving. Marco has a 100 percent chance of crashing and a 100 percent chance of living. You have around a 50 percent chance of crashing and a 50 percent chance of living. That's a twenty five percent chance that you die. Not acceptable.)

(I'm being punished for being competent? But what if he flips over and we all-) I began to argue, But Cassie shushed me.

(Don't bother.) She laughed. (This is why Jake's failing math class.)

(Actually, Prince Jake's math is correct.) Ax said. (It is the statistics where he is wrong. Rachel has about a thirty-five percent chance of crashing, and a forty five percent chance of survival. It is more of a twenty one percent chance if you take in the average of motor accidents-)

We all laughed and flew on. I let it drop, and we all relaxed. We immediately tensed up again as Tobias called, (There! Those four kids are getting out of that big mini-van!)

(Swarm! Swarm! Swarm!) Jake bellowed. It worried me that I didn't know whether he was joking or not.

TSEER! Tobias screeched, and shot out of the sky. We all dove after him, hurtling like arrows at the ground. But we were like blimps compared to Jake. He shot past us all, screaming his battle cry.

TSEEER! The four teens barely had time to look and widen their eyes in surprise before Jake was on them. With perfect precision, Jake snatched the car keys right of a big blonde boy's hand.

(YEAH!) Tobias yelled, looking like he was about to burst with pride. (That's my boy!)

By then we had caught up with Jake, and the kids were running away at full speed. Except one of them, a greasy looking punk with red hair and pale skin. He reached into his pocket, a murderous look on his face.

Controller. I'd bet my life on it, Except it's not good to bet things that you might lose in the next few minutes.

I hurtled towards his face at breakneck speed. I was betting my life that I could reach him before he pulled out that dracon beam. Okay, I don't follow my own advice. Sue me.

He whipped his dracon beam out and pointed it at me. I was too slow - I wasn't going to make it! "Andalite Bandit!" He mouthed angrily, and squeezed the trigger.

TSEER! A Peregrine Falcon slammed into the dracon beam. I didn't know how Jake had gotten there so fast, and I didn't care. I cranked hard to the left, Jake knocked the dracon beam to the right, and it missed me by so little I felt the heat go whizzing past.

I hit him with my talons outstretched, right in his face, leaving bloody tracts. He screamed and dropped his weapon. "I'LL KILL YOU ALL, FILTH!" He bellowed. I dug my talons in tighter, and he bellowed.

(Rachel!) Cassie yelled. (Let him go!)

I ripped my talons out and fluttered over to the car. (Let's get out of here!) I said, perching on the back of the seat.

(Agreed!) Marco said, beginning the fastest demorph to human he'd ever done. He finished just after Cassie. He paused for a moment, and then began another rapid morph to gorilla. We all knew how hard it was to do rapid morphs, and one after the other must have practically killed him. I was impressed. Of course, I didn't let him know that.

"Hey, no need to hurry. I'm in no rush for this joy ride." I said, half joking. "The longer you take to morph, the longer I get to enjoy life."

(Sorry, Xena, but I feel the need...) Marco said. We all groaned as Marco finished. (The need for speed!) His foot hovered above the gas pedal. Then he turned and looked at me. As a matter of fact, everyone was looking at me.

"Whoops. Almost forgot." I said. I forced the wild, crazy grin they've come to expect onto my face. "Let's do it!"


	8. Car Chase

**JAKE **

BUMP! The car lurched onto the road, bumping up and down wildly.

(Did every body use the bathroom before we left?) Marco joked. (I'm not turning around!)

"You know, that is getting really old." Rachel commented. "How about 'Did everybody make out their will before we left?'. That's original and realistic."

(Ha Ha Ha.) Marco said, shifting the car into gear three. (And, for a limited time only, a bonus Ha.)

The car let out an angry squeal and screamed down the asphalt. We all slammed backwards into our seats painfully. Tobias flipped off of his perch on Rachel's seat and hit me in the chest.

"Marco, I believe that the speed limit is 35 miles an hour while inside of the neighborhood. Nay Buh Or Huh Ud." Ax said.

(I am going 35!) Marco said indignantly. Then he squinted at the speed dial. (Maybe a mile or ten faster, no biggie.)

"Slow. Down." I said calmly. "Now."

Marco sighed and eased up off of the accelerator. We all sank forward.

(I thought you wanted to go fast.) Marco grumbled. Then his voice turned serious. (Where am I headed?)

"Tobias, where's the nearest yeerk pool entrance?" I asked.

(Um, McDonalds, I guess. About twelve, fifteen miles away.) He answered, sounding unsure.

"Too far." I snapped. "We have ten minutes, tops."

"The mall, eleven miles." Rachel said immediately. "Ten if you know the shortcuts."

"Fine." I commanded. "Rachel, guide Marco. Marco..."

(Yeah, fearless leader?) Marco asked, a grin spreading on his gorilla face.

"You know that movie?" I said. "Where those people in the bus have to stay over fifty mph, or the bus blows up?"

(What is it that you're suggesting?) He said, grinning. He knew exactly what I was suggesting, He just wanted to hear me say it.

"Well, this is gonna be like that, only worse." I sighed. I was sealing our fates. "You have to stay over 60 mph, or it's the end of the world."

(Are you giving me permission to drive as fast as I can?) Marco asked, feigning ignorance. He can really grind my nerves sometimes.

"No, I am not giving you _permission_." I snapped. "It's an order."

Marco's grin widened. With the face of a gorilla, It looked like he was about to go for my throat.

(Seat belts, everyone!) Marco cried, and prepared to knock ten years off of all of our lives.

**AX **

I have been a passenger in an andalite dome ship as it piloted through the fiery meteor storms of _Gulgarin_. I have been a bull in the back of an out of control truck, which is a uniquely horrifying experience. But none of these events could match for sheer terror one experiences while being in the same vehicle as Marco when he is driving at speeds to make an _Julgregian_ stunt pilot pass out from fear.

We were on the highway, going well above their 60 mph. Yet Marco still felt it was necessary to keep his foot on the accelerator, thus increasing our already dangerously high speed rate.

(Perhaps this is a sufficient velocity?) I pleaded in thought speak. I feared that if opened my mouth, my stomach would empty itself. (The steering mechanism on this vehicle is far too primitive to turn the vehicle the 90 degrees necessary at some junctions!)

(I got everything under control!) Marco said, then skidding wildly to the right.

Several cars twisted out of the way, saluting us with the typical raised center digit. I followed Rachel's example and saluted back.

WEEH! WEEH! WEEH! WEEH! An offensive noise assaulted my ears! I looked around wildly.

"Look out!" Cassie yelled, pointing behind us. A man in a black outfit and helmet was weaving through the traffic, racing after us.

"Just keep driving, Marco." Prince Jake said. His voice was higher than normal.

"Is he a superhero?" I asked, puzzled. "Why is he wearing that outfit?"

(He's a cop.) Tobias said. (He wears that helmet to protect his head from injuries. You know, if he falls.)

I shook my head at his choice of transportation, A two wheeled contraption that was constantly tipping hazardously to the side. Humans seemed to have an unnatural affinity for finding ways to land themselves painfully on the ground.

"STOP!" The human bellowed, holding a large cone in his hand. A megaphone, such as cheerleaders use to annoy the audience at sports, I believe. "IN THE NAME OF THE LAW!"

When we failed to comply, he drew a black device from his pocket. A human handgun, technolgically laughable. But then again, human tires are technologically laughable too.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

Marco yanked the wheel to the left, and the bullets hit the road where we used to be. (YAH!) Tobias yelped, as he flipped into the rear of the car. (OW! Hey, there are some dracon beams back here! Not a soft landing.)

I twisted myself neck around and attempted to look to the rear. Humans are not the best creatures to morph if you want to look behind you.

(There are also these chips and wires.) Tobias said. Then he bellowed. (Oh, Sh-)

TSEEW! TSEEW! TSEEW!

Several bright lights flashed behind me. Tobias dove under my seat and popped up directly in front of me, feathers singed.

"Tobias, what's goning on?" Prince Jake yelled.

He was answered almost immediately by a band of silver balls rising into the air inside of the trunk. Hunter robots.

We were flying down a crowded highway in a van, persued by a very persistant police officer on a motorcycle, with an army of hunter robots in the trunk, probably on the default setting, 'Kill'.

I, quite calmly under the given circumstances, prepared my _Hirac Delest_.


	9. Seventh Animorph

**CASSIE **

****

"Everyone, get low!" Jake said. "Ax, any suggestions on how to stop these hunter robots?"

Ax got the miffed look he always has when we ask him about alien technology. (Prince Jake, these robots are of yeerk origin. I have no idea how they work. Their visual aiming system is the only weakness I can think to exploit.)

Jake looked expectantly at Tobias. Tobias stared back with his fierce hawk gaze.

(Uh-Uh, sorry.) Tobias said. (I only had one squirrel for breakfast; I cannot blind a whole army of hunter robots.)

"Um, Jake?" I said hesitantly. "I just thought of a really insane, really stupid idea that could possibly get us all killed."

Jake stuck his head around the side of the seat. "What's-"

TSEEW!

A hunter robot fired! Jake jerked his head backwards and ducked behind the armrest. "What's your plan?"

I quickly explained my plan. Jake agreed that it was crazy and suicidal, but it was all we had.

"On my word." Jake said. "Remember, stay out of the windows while you morph. If some controller sees us, we are done for."

Ax and I nodded. Jake, Ax, and I would be morphing to the one animal that could possibly take out the hunter robots. Tobias had the dangerous job of the distraction.

"Ax, go!" Jake whispered. Ax had to demorph to his andalite form first.

Ax was growing and stretching out, pressing tightly against me. "Watch your tail!" I hissed.

The hunter robots spun around and locked onto Ax's changing form. Their dracon cannons glowed red.

"Tobias, go!" Jake yelled.

TSEER! Tobias flapped into the air and dove for the hunter robots, beak first.

SWOOSH! The car jumped into the air, and Tobias missed! Missed by a hair, but still a miss!

(Ahh!) Tobias yelled, swerving sharply to avoid slamming into the wall. He bumped his left wing badly against the window.

"Marco, now is not the time!" Jake yelled.

TSEEW! Dracon beams shot into Ax!

Ax yelped, and I felt the heat rising from his burnt fur. I swatted at the hunter robots futilely.

"Keep morphing!" Jake commanded. "Cassie, Morph!"

I focused on my own morph. My teeth grew sharp and smaller, while the ground rushed up at me. My eyesight dimmed slightly, and my hearing and smelling increased. A tail shot from my spine, and my fingers and toes oozed together to form four stumpy digits. And then came the fur. The black fur, silky and long, sprouted from my body, with a single white stripe down my back. And finally, the calm confidence that made up this animals instincts.

My morph was complete. I was small, no bigger than a house cat, but one of the most dangerous animals on the face of the earth.

I was a skunk. And I was prepared to do what a skunk does best.

Amid the dracon fire, smoky air, and half morphed nightmares, I turned around with my back to the robots, looking carefully over my shoulder. And then, with the frightening accuracy of a skunk, I fired.

Bulls eye! One of the robots sparked, and starting wandering blindly around the van. The other robots turned towards me, guns glowing. I cocked my tail and pointed it at each of them in turn, hissing slightly.

(Wah Wah Wah.) Marco said, sounding like old cowboy music. I ignored him, muscles tense, the car vibrating underneath me. I waited, seeing which of us was going to fire first-

One of the robots twisted and fired at me, and at the same moment I fired at it! The dracon beam hit skunk spray, and a putrid smell filled the car.

"Oh-" Rachel gurgled, eyes watering up. She flung open the window and plunged her head out, but quickly yanked it back inside to avoid having it removed by a passing truck.

(Aw, man, Cassie!) Marco coughed, rubbing his gorilla eyes. (Try not to kill us, ok?)

I ignored him and continued trading fire with the robots. I was putting the skunk body through some serious exercise; Skunks are made for waddling, not dodging dracon beams. By now, two more skunks were lined up next to me, and we were shooting robots down like the artillery.

"They're-gasp-down!" Rachel coughed. Her eyes were filled with tears, and there was barf on the dashboard in front of her. "Stop already!"

(Yeah, and we've got some more trouble.) Tobias said darkly. (Got any more brilliant plans, Cassie?)

I peered out of the window, and saw three policemen speeding after us on motorcycles! One was short and several lanes to our right, and the other one was the same one we had seen earlier. He was several lanes to our left and looked pissed. The third one was two cars behind us, waving his gun madly.

(Okay, Okay.) Jake said, rapidly demorphing. (Everyone, get to human. We cannot let these cops see a van full of animals. Ax, stay skunk and get under a seat. We don't want them to see an andalite.)

We followed Jake's orders and demorphed, as we turned off the highway. We were almost at the mall, with three minutes remaining.

"Cassie and Rachel, take these." He said, handing both of us a dracon beam. He looked Rachel square in the eye. "Don't shoot unless absolutely necessary."

I felt the weight of the dracon beam in my hand. It felt like lead in my hands. "Jake..." I began.

"You don't have to shoot unless absolutely necessary." He said. "We'll be fine."

"Three minutes left, and four miles to go." Rachel said. "We're not going to make it."

(Four miles in three minutes.) Marco said nonchalantly. (80 mph as an average speed. No problemo.)

The speed gauge went even higher, and my stomach flopped up and down. I highly doubted that I would leave this van without at least one gray hair on my head.

"STOP!" The shorter cop yelled, swinging from the right and driving right next to the van. "STOP THE VEHICLE!"

The angry looking cop passed a jeep, and came towards us-

(They're trying to close us in!) Tobias said. (Move!)

Too late. The short cop and the angry cop had us sandwiched between them, preventing us from turning.

(The third cop has his gun out!) Tobias warned. (He's aiming for the tires!)

Marco couldn't do anything about it. I could.

I rolled down my window and leaned out. I could see the cop now, he was behind us, with his gun leveled right at the tires. I whipped up my dracon beam, taking careful aim. I tightened my finger on the trigger, ignoring the voices in my head.

_The world, Cassie. _The logical part of me argued. _It's one life versus the world._

Six billion intangible lives were on a scale, being balanced against the one life right in front of me. I would have to see him die.

BLAM!

I had hesitated too long. The left rear tire popped, and went skidding across the road. The van jumped into the air, and then landed on it's right wheels. It balanced for an agonizing few seconds, and then toppled onto its side into a ditch filled with gravel.

CRASH! The windows smashed, and sent glass flying at all of us. I barely felt the pain as the glass buried itself in my skin.

What had I been thinking? We would never make it in time now. Our secret would be known. Our families would be dragged to the yeerk pool, and have yeerks crawl into their heads. I had just sentenced six billion humans to their doom. It was all my fault. But the worse thing was, I don't think that I even really cared. I felt relieved that I didn't shoot the cop, which made me feel guilty.

"Get out of the vehicle, with your hands in the air!" A voice yelled. Marco, with an effort, wrenched open the twisted door. In a haze, I followed him out of the door. Jake came out, hands in the air. Smart, he was leaving Rachel, Tobias, and Ax in the car. They couldn't know how many of us had been in there.

The three cops were all running towards us, hands in their holsters. I slowly stuck my hand into the air.

The smaller cop pulled off their helmet, and I gasped as a wave of red hair fell to her shoulders.

"You are all under arrest." Mary Sue said calmly, pointing her gun at me.

**MARCO **

****

"What?!?" Jake yelled in amazement. "You're a cop?"

"Youngest on the police force." Mary said, smiling sweetly and jabbing Cassie with her gun. "Now, I said you were under arrest."

I decided it was my turn to play the hero. Nobody else was in battle morph. So with all of the force I could muster, I punched the third cop square in the stomach.

"YAAAHHH!" He yelled, and went soaring over the side of the road and out of sight.

BLAM! BLAM! Several bullets passed through my shoulder. The angry cop and Mary Sue were firing their guns at me, with painfully good aim.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

"Move! Move! Move!" Jake ordered. "Somebody, grab those motorcycles and get out of here!"

I nodded, impressed. Jake was still trying to get us to the yeerk pool before Jessie, and he had found the solution while under fire. The boy had a brain up there, and he could use it when he wanted to. Although I would never, ever tell him that.

Bullets flew through air, and all of us Animorphs scattered like flies. I ducked and rolled, a very un-gorilla like movement. Rachel kicked open the side door and lunged out, firing her dracon beam.

TSEEW! TSEEW!

The tall cop dove out of the way, still firing. He had obviously had some seriously good training.

(Remind me to stop paying my taxes.) I muttered to nobody in particular, lumbering over to him.

He kept squeezing the trigger on his little popgun, like that was going to stop me. I swung my cinder-block fist and socked him directly in the chest. His helmet flew off, and I saw the face of the old man from the theater. Gary Stu.

Well, freaky Sue powers or no freaky Sue powers, he was down. Nobody except nobody gets hit by a gorilla and stays on their feet.

(Marco, a little help here!) Tobias yelled. I turned around and ran back towards them, but help was already there.

"AUUGH!" Mary staggered backwards, clutching her face. A yellowish liquid dripped between he fingers. A skunk was looking at her innocently.

(I believe that you required assistance?) Ax said calmly.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

(AUGH!) I yelled, grabbing the back of my head. I spun around, and saw Gary clutching his stomach with one hand, and firing his gun with the other. I had punched him! He should have been on a liquid diet for weeks! It was impossible!

"Die, human." Gary hissed, aiming at me again. I tried to charge him, but stumbled, blood leaking between my fingers.

TSEEW! A red light shot through the air and struck Gary before he could fire again. There was a bright red flash, and a sharp metallic smell. I shielded my eyes from the flash, and when I looked again there was a smoking crater where he used to be.

"That was actually refreshing." Rachel said, switching the dial on her dracon beam down from ten. "Somebody actually knowing that we're human."

(I believe that we have a situation.) Ax said, now andalite. He motioned to Mary, who was starting to recover from her spraying. (I had to demorph to my andalite form, because of injuries. I believe that she saw me.)

"Kill her." Rachel said coldly.

"She was just doing her job." I said, now human. For some reason, I didn't want her to die. " Gary is the one who actually shot at us."

(Yes. I do not believe Mary Sues are inherently evil.) Ax said, fully andalite. (But the fact remains that she saw me as an andalite.)

"I have a solution." I said to both of them. Jake, Cassie, and Tobias weren't here, presumably they had taken the motorcycles. Too bad Cassie wasn't here, she would probably vote with me. "We make her a temporary non-morphing member of the Animorphs. She helps us stop Jessie from getting infested, and we give her the power later."

"That's crazy, even from you." Rachel said. "Why would we do that?"

"Why not?" I shot back. "We have nothing to lose. Mary doesn't work out, the human race is screwed. We don't stop Jessie, the human race is screwed. Mary does work out, she uses her freaky Sue powers to save Jessie, and we live to fight another day, with a bonus two extra members."

Ax nodded. (Your logic is undeniable. I will agree to accept Mary's help.)

Rachel nodded slowly, after hesitating for a moment. "Fine."

I looked at Mary, who was still rubbing red eyes. The three of us gathered around her. The seventh Animorph.

"What do you doing?" She coughed. We all tried to ignore the stench rising from her.

"Mary, we are about to rock your world." I said.


	10. Mary Sue

**A/N: **Just a little reminder. If you read, review! I have about a hundred times more hits than reviews, so either a lot of people didn't review, or those of you who did review read the story fifty two times each. The secret is to click that beautiful lavender button down below, guys. It would really make my day.

P.S Thank you, voodooqueen, for reviewing so much!****

****

**MARY **

****

_WHAT? _The sub-leader bellowed telepathically at me. _Your cover is blown? _

My black boots thumped the pavement as I attempted to keep pace with the three birds flying overhead. I wiped the sweat from my forehead and continued the conversation with the sub-leader. I probably would have felt sorry for him (Mind linking with a scout is very hard), except he had been yelling at me for the last ten minutes.

_Yes, _I explained again, _but they don't suspect the real reason I'm here. Based on the rough human knowledge of Ary-Oos, or Mary Sues as they call them here, they have arrived at the incorrect conclusion that I am a human with no flaws. They think that I will readily ally with them against the yeerks. _

_Wait, _The sub leader commanded. I felt his mind withdraw from my own.

(Are you incapable of processing thought speak?!?) A voice bellowed in my head. I tripped sprawled on the ground. My black pants were smudged with dirt, and my blue vest was damp from the grass. I muttered something not nice under my breath.

(Oh yeah, Ax, I think she's 'capable'.) Rachel said with a laugh. (Why didn't you respond?)

I climbed indignantly to my feet, brushing strands of hair out of my face. My hair is long and stubborn, insisting on going over my face at every possible opportunity.

"I guess I was just lost in thought." I responded semi-truthfully. I guessed that I couldn't mind speak and thought speak at the same time. "Sorry, what did you want to say?"

(I said, do you know some shortcut or something to the mall?) Marco asked. (Jake said that Sues always know things like that.)

"I'm not like other Sues." I said mysteriously. Perfect. Keep them guessing and make me sound special, which is what being an Ary-Oo is really all about. "Anything else?"

(I didn't ask whether you were 'like other Sues'.) Marco said coolly. (I asked if you knew a shortcut to the mall.)

"And I asked if you wanted anything else." I responded.

(And if I wanted you to shut up...) Marco said.

"Funny." I shot back. "That's exactly what I've wanted ever since you started talking."

(Why don't both of you shut up?) Rachel asked sweetly. (That would just make my day.)

"Fine." I said. I would have fought some more, except sub-leader 23 was trying to contact me again.

_I had to talk to sub-leader 11. I dropped your link for his. _He said, without a hint of apology. _She wants to know whether you have discovered the source of the reality field, and what has become of Gary Stu._

_He was killed by a fierce blonde warrior, _I said, feeling no emotion. Why should I? His death had actually raised my _Ryha _level, or Mary-Sueness as it is called here. I had been the only survivor of the incident, A definite _Ryha_ booster. Perhaps my _Ryha_ level would go high enough to take me past scout class soon.

_How did he die? _He questioned.

_She vaporized him with a yeerk laser weapon. _I said factually.

_He always did do horrible in 'living-against-impossible-odds' class. _He said in a dismissive tone. _More importantly, did you locate the source of the reality field? It highly lowers our chances of successful infiltration of Earth. _

_I have not located the reality field. _I said.

_Disappointing, yet not unexpected. _The sub-leader said. _We will send more Warriors immediately to aid in the earth effort. Oh yes, we have been trying to contact Jer-Yee two for some time now, with no success. Do you have any information on his whereabouts? _

_Ah, yes, him. _I said smugly. _I actually happen to have information on his whereabouts. _

_What information do you have? Where is he? _He said sharply.

_Why, he's right here in my pocket. _I said easily, basking in the shock I felt from his mind. _I rescued him from the theater, and I plan on dropping him off at the pool before his kadrona cycle is up. Luckily, Jer-Yee did score high on his 'living-against-impossible-odds' class, and can live indefinitely without kadrona rays. It does tend to make him weak and a little crazy, so he probably wasn't up to long range mind linking. He needs to soak in kadrona before he receives a new body. _

_Um- Good work. _The sub-leader said awkwardly. Nobody is used to congratulating a scout. _Just continue to help these Animorphs until further notice. Do not reveal your identity to anybody else. And get Jer-Yee to the pool, so that he can receive a new body. _

_Jer-Yee,_ I said quietly, jiggling my pocket slightly. _What body would you like after you get your kadrona rays? _

Jer-Yee responded in a weak, short-range mind link. _I like Yeerk. _He said, sounding woozy. Then he gave a weak chuckle._ Although how about a new host? Maybe one who's less of a- _

I suddenly dropped the mind link. We were at the mall, arriving just in time to see a black van skid to a stop in front of the door. Two men leapt out, dragging a struggling girl named-

_Jessie, _My mind whispered.

(What are our options?) Ax questioned.

(There's only one thing to do.) Rachel said. The eagle in the sky folded back its wings and hurtled straight towards the men. (Attack!)

(Aw, man.) Marco groaned. (The end of the world is very, very near when Rachel's right.)

The hawk dove after her, the osprey diving out of sight behind the building. I pulled out my gun and aimed, my hand trembling slightly. I wasn't a warrior, after all.

TSEER! The eagle screamed. One of the men jerked his head up and whipped out a pistol. He pulled the trigger.

BLAM! I aimed carefully and fired. The man grabbed his shoulder, his gun clattering to the ground. It wasn't time for her to die. Not just yet.

The doors of the cars flew open, and four more men leapt out. They had finally realized that Jessie must be important somehow if the 'andalite bandits' were trying to intervene. So these guys weren't playing around with guns.

TSEEW! TSEEW!

The hawk swerved and dodged the dracon beams, but the move cost him precious speed. I fired a quick round at one of the men aiming a dracon beam at him.

(Get Jessie!) Marco yelled. (Kill her if you have to.)

I was shocked at his cold reasoning. But I lowered my gun and aimed carefully at the figure struggling with several men.

_You can do it._ My mind said.

(Marilyn Sue, behind you!) Ax called. I spun around, and saw two of the big men directly behind me.

(Her name is just Mary!) Rachel said, sounding annoyed. (Not everybody- AHH!)

This was getting worse every second. Something had just happened to Rachel, and the two men advanced towards me, dracon beams drawn.

"Drop the guns, boys." I said with false calm. In reality, they could probably fry me before I took out either of them. "I don't want anyone to get _hurt_."

"Don't make this harder than it has to be, girlie." The one without any hair said.

"I'm not trying to, baldie." I snapped. Whoops.

_Duck_, Jer-Yee commanded. I obeyed without thinking, and a dracon beam shot flew over my head.

"Aw, come on, guys." I grinned winningly. "Let's not lose our tempers, now."

They glared at me.

"Why all the violence?" I asked, taking a small step towards them. "Can't we all just be friends?"

"What are you talking about?" He said in a puzzled voice, keeping his dracon beam trained on me.

"Are you _happy_ firing guns at people?" I asked. "Is this job actually satisfactory enough to keep risking your life?"

"Huh?" Baldie asked.

"Peace, man." I babbled, taking another step. "That what it's all about. Go against the flow, don't work for, um…The man!"

"The man?" Hairy asked. These were not very bright yeerks.

"The man, The emperor, the top dog!" I said. "Join the movement, new wave of the future."

"You mean the peace movement?" Baldie asked. "But that's treason."

"Yeah, the emperor wouldn't like that." Hairy agreed. "We'll have to take you in."

Baldie nodded, and they advanced on me.

I was obviously losing them. "No, No, no!" I shook my head, taking a step backwards. "This isn't what peace is! Come on, don't obey the emperor's brain washing! Fight the power!"

They looked at each other, and lunged. Oh, well, I had tried.

I leapt into the air, and they shot underneath me. I landed easily on the ground, while they skidded across the asphalt.

_They'll get out their weapons now._ Jer-Yee warned. I twisted around and saw them aiming their dracon beams.

I whirled with supernatural speed and fired my gun at them.

Click. The gun made a sound that no cop on earth likes to hear in the middle of a gunfight. Uh-Oh.

Improvising, I chucked my gun at them and hurled myself to the side. Hairy yelled as my gun smacked the side of his head, and Baldie fired at empty air.

"A little help would be nice!" I yelled, rolling behind the side of the mall. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one man struggling with Jessie just inside of the mall. There were several men still firing dracon beams, but instead of the harrier and osprey there was a gorilla and an andalite, both of who were fighting desperately. The eagle was lying on the ground.

"Okay, so I handle this myself." I sighed. I drew my baton and gripped it tightly. My combat skills were above average by human standards, laughable by Ary-Oo standards.

"Well, these guys are human, controller on not." I said. I was a novice in a few forms of martial arts, but anybody serious in any of them would wipe the floor with me. These guys were probably just your average muscle heads, but there were two of them.

_Yeah, slight problem._ Jer-Yee agreed. _If you're about to get baked by a dracon beam, remember to give me some warning so I can crawl out of your pocket. _

_Real nice, Jer-Yee. _I growled. _Just remember that you need me to get to the yeerk pool. _

_Oh. _was all Jer-Yee said. _Good luck then._

He dropped the mind link as the two men's slow footsteps came closer. They were moving cautiously; They had no idea what was waiting for them around the corner. Unfortunately for me, it was me.

"Aw, man." I sighed, and leapt out of my hiding place, swinging madly with what might as well have been a little toy stick.

The fight was swift and, for my part, painful. I managed to give Hairy a black eye, Baldie a lump on the head, and neither of them would be having kids anytime soon, but in the end it was me lying on the ground. My vision was blurred around the edges, and oddly star filed.

_Calm. Calm. Calm. _I willed them. _Stop. Stop. Stop._

Either I was too weak to make it work, or their brains were just too simple to manipulate. It gave me a certain amount of cynical pleasure to decide it was the latter.

_Or you should be focusing on the yeerk instead of the host. _Jer-Yee snipped. _You lost the fight, didn't you? _

Without waiting for an answer, he wriggled out of my pocket and landed with a plop on the ground. Without even a farewell, he abandoned me to my fate.

_You expect a farewell? From him? _My mind voice sneered. _You are getting odd, Mary._

I told my mind voice to shut up.

"We've decided that you're just not worth the trouble." Hairy snarled sinisterly, jamming a dracon beam to my head. The frightening effect was greatly lessened by the black ring around his eye. "The Visser isn't going to notice one young cop get lost in the shuffle, especially not when we bring him three andalite host bodies. Besides, it will be so much more fun just to kill you."

I cursed my _Ryha_ for making my death so melodramatic. Why could the moron just squeeze the trigger and get it over with? With my luck I'd be tortured first.

"Hmm, why not have some fun first?" Baldie suggested, grinning. "How-"

But before he could finish whatever twisted thought was going through his head, a big shadow loomed up behind them.

Two black, ham-sized fists reached forward and grabbed them by their necks. The gorilla casually slammed their heads together and tossed the limp bodies to the side.

(Ah, the mighty Sue.) Marco said. (Mortal after all, huh?)

He lumbered over and tossed me none-too-gently over his shoulder.

(Things are not going well.) He said. (I left Ax fighting five beefy guys with dracon beams. I have to get back and help.)

We rounded the corner, back to the front of the mall. I was surprised to see three controller's bodies lying on the ground, minus their heads. Ax was leaning against a car, bleeding badly.

(Way to go, Ax!) Marco cheered. Then his voice darkened. (Where are the other two?)

(I could not stop them.) Ax panted. (They went inside the mall!)

"You stay here and morph to human to fix your injuries." I said. "Marco and me will go after her. You catch up when you can, or-"

(Listen.) Marco interrupted. (I don't care how 'perfect' and 'special' you are, you don't give the orders.)

"What's _your_ plan then?" I asked. Marco hesitated, and I grabbed his arm and tugged. "Come on, you're wasting time."

While I grabbed him, I focused on him with all of my will power. When I had tried it on Jake, it had lasted less than a day. I had done right in front of all of the Animorphs, Which I admit had been more than slightly stupid. But now I had the perfect target, and nobody would know except for me and maybe Marco, in some small part of his sub-conscious.

_Love, Love, Love._ I thought.

The gorilla swayed for a moment, and then shook its head. (Alright. Ax, fix yourself up and try to get Rachel to get up. Mary, you and me will go after her.)

(But that is what Marilyn just suggested.) Ax said in a puzzled voice. (I-)

"It doesn't matter, we don't have any time to lose." I interrupted. "Let's do it!" 


	11. Run, Jessie, Run

**JESSIE **

****

I watched with deep satisfaction as the mall cops dragged away the moron I had been wrestling with. It had been a grown man struggling with a teenage girl who was obviously not his daughter. One scream from me and I swear the entire population of mall security came swooping down upon us. They had also unknowingly prevented me from being reinfested, which in turn prevented the yeerks from finding out about the so-called andalite bandits. Which would have been game over for the human race.

Chalk one up for the rent-a-cops.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." I said irritably, waving away the people fussing over me. "Go on with your shopping!"

I fought my over to a bench to sit down and think. The bandits, by telling me their secret, had sealed my fate. I could never return to the yeerk pool now. If I went to the pool, Earth would be doomed. Just because I was a voluntary controller didn't mean I was a complete traitor to humanity. I had always thought that I was just one more soldier in the yeerk army, and that I wouldn't make any difference in the long run.

I was obviously wrong. If I didn't want the yeerks to win, I was going to have to either spontaneously contract amnesia, or go along with the bandits. The former seemed highly unlikely, so I was going to have to betray the yeerks and help the bandits. Don't get me wrong, I had no love for the slimy slugs. They had just been the only possibility I had for any adventure at the time. And from what I've seen of the frequency of the bandit's attacks, fighting with them was going to be a major bore.

I was seriously considering just heading to the yeerk pool, turning in the bandits, and returning to the yeerks as a hero, when a big man ran past. His eyes sort of slid over me for a second, then he did a double take.

"There she is!" He yelled, as I leapt to my feet. I whirled around and saw two more of the big men running towards me.

I'm sorry, but the first thought that passed through my head was, _Cool_. This looked like it might turn into some serious fun.

I starting running in the opposite direction, wincing with every step. The Cassie girl had done a good job on my burns, but not good enough. The big men were gaining rapidly, and the other man was right on top of me.

"Help!" I yelled. Maybe the same ploy would work again. "Help!"

Some security guards snapped their heads around, and the man reached into his pocket and held up a badge. "FBI!" He yelled. "Don't interfere!"

I skidded left and plunged into the crowd. The men plunged _through_ the crowd.

"Move you stupid dapsens!" I bellowed at a group of giggling, stupid, blonde, mall-crawling airheads. They just stood in the way of the escalator, giving me shocked looks, so I had to bowl them over.

"Stop!" The man yelled, as I charged up the escalator. He pounded over the mall-rats I had knocked over and dove at me.

Crunch! He collided with my leg, and I slammed onto a metal step. I felt something warm trickle down my forehead. He was going to pay for that.

WHAM! I brought my other leg slamming into his face. He howled and released my foot, and I scampered to my feet. The other two men weren't that far behind me now.

I rolled off the escalator and quickly scanned the area. It was your standard second floor of a mall. No really big stores to lose these goons in.

I raced towards a jewelry shop, the best I could do. The three men were on my tail.

A crowded mall is not a very good place to be chased and be small at the same time. I was struggling past everyone, while the big men were breaking through the crowd like linebackers and closing in fast.

I felt a hand close around my shoulder. A middle aged lady yelled excited. "I've got her!"

Of course! There were other controllers here besides those three, probably looking for a promotion.

I kicked her hard in the shins, and she stumbled backwards. She grabbed a fistful of my jacket and yanked to regain her balance. The only thing that resulted in was nearly sending both of us over the railing.

We teetered perilously for a moment over empty space, until I pushed away and we toppled backwards onto the floor. Somehow, she still kept a hold of my jacket. Guess she really wanted that promotion.

I snarled and bit deep into her hand. She decided to let go in a hurry, and I ran. There was no way I could make the jewelry store now, and they probably had controllers lurking around inside. Actually, they definitely had controllers posted in there.

See, I had one advantage over my pursuers. I had commanded several escaped host and yeerk recapture missions, at least once before when we were trying to catch Visser one. I knew exactly what was waiting for me.

I was virtually trapped. They would have men posted in every shop, and some more at the bottom of the escalators. They had anticipated and covered almost all my escape routes.

But there's something beautiful about an almost. Between almost all and all is a vast gulf of opportunity.

The three men were getting closer, the controller lady was getting closer, And I was quickly running out of options.

So I decided to take the one path that nobody would have expected. I mean, what kind of idiot would throw themselves over a railing towards the lobby twenty feet below?

**A/N: **This chapter sounded a lot more like my usual style of writing. The others seem so dull in comparison. Yay and boo, I guess.


	12. What the Sue?

**MARCO**

It was like trying to control a morph, only worse. It was like battling a yeerk for dominance, only worse. Ten times worse.

_I don't love Mary!_, I screamed pitifully from a small corner of my mind. My mind ignored me, and followed her into the mall.

"Okay," Mary said, her voice sounding like the most beautiful music on the planet. I hated it. "We need to find Jessie."

(No duh, Sue.) I tried to say. But what came out was, (Yeah. Good idea.)

We both scanned the mall area, looking for a sign of Jessie. 'We' Being Mary and the entity that currently inhabited my body.

There were various store clerks yelling and running away from us. There were some hot looking teenage girls, yelling and running away from us. There were some mothers yelling and running away from us, dragging their children along with them.

None of this worried me that much. People tend to run, and usually scream, when a hulking primate walks into the local mall.

The thing that did worry me was the small group of people yelling and running _towards _us, some of them the same type of big men the yeerks liked to use as human shocktroops. There are only four types of people who will run towards a gorilla at the mall: idiots, lunatics, Cassie, and controllers. Discounting idiots and lunatics through pure cynicism, and Cassie through common sense (Where was that girl, anyway?), there were maybe twenty people trying to kill us.

(Mary, we've got some trouble coming our way.) I warned. _Drop dead, Sue._

Mary pointed towards the escalator. "There's a group of controllers running that way, away from us." She reported. "The only reason would be that they're chasing Jessie."

I looked, and sure enough, several feet ahead of the controllers, was Jessie. But the crowd was slowing her down, and soon those feet would be turning to inches. And she couldn't see what I could see from down here.

(She's heading into a dead end!) I realized. (We have to get her now!)

Mary nodded, and turned to face the controllers. "You take the ten on the right, I'll take the ten on the left."

I almost laughed. (I saw you the 'fight' you put up with those two controllers outside. How about I take on all twenty, and you just run?)

There was a triumphant glint in Mary's eyes. _Something's up. Don't trust her! _I yelled at my mind. My mind ignored me.

(Go!) I said, charging the controllers. Mary looked at me one more time, and then ran towards the escalators.

It was almost funny, really. The controllers had their guns, and probably dracon beams too, but they didn't dare use them in public. It was kinda sad, seeing controllers reduced to using whatever sharp objects they could get their hands on.

"Andalite Bandit!" a lady snarled. She pointed a knife at me. "Why must you-"

(Sorry, no time to chit-chat.) I said, lunging straight into them. (I've got a day to save.)

Okay, that was corny. I was going to have to work on my lines.

The lady had a moment to look surprised before my fist slammed into her stomach. She skittered backward across the polished tile and slammed into a potted plant.

"Get him!" The others yelled, swarming around me.

Somebody darted forward and swung a switchblade at my chest. It bounced off of my rubbery skin. The other controllers took this as their misguided cue to attack.

Knife. Dodge. Fist. Duck. Yawn.

"Marco!" somebody called loudly. I jerked my head around and saw Mary taking her good ol' time up the escalator. "I'm not going to make it!"

I turned to see where Jessie was, and felt my heart skip a beat. She was fighting with a lady next to the railing, teetering dangerously on the edge.

Jessie jerked away from the railing, and they both sprawled onto the ground, not ten feet away from Mary. Mary had plenty of time! She certainly had had no problem keeping up with Ax, Rachel, and me when we were in bird morph.

But my mind ignored me, simply refusing to think bad things about Mary.

(Ah!) I cried. While my attention had been averted, one of the controllers had succeeded in plunging a Swiss army knife into my stomach, price tag and all.

I broke his neck for him, and looked back upwards. This time, my heart stopped beating altogether.

Jessie was plummeting through the air. I blinked twice, but she was still falling. Mary leaned over the railing and made a half-hearted grab for her.

_Mary was going to kill her!_ I realized. _She doesn't want Jessie to be made an Animorph, because then she wouldn't be special! She was killing a perfectly good Animorph._

I slammed through the controllers and ran, the knife in my stomach not even slowing me down. Please, I had once endured having a sword rammed through my chest.

_Mary wouldn't let her die! _My mind said. _See, she's running to catch her!_

She was. But at about half of her maximum speed. If she wanted, she could have easily caught Jessie. But she wasn't going to. It was murder.

_Stop! _My mind yelled in a commanding voice. _Mary has her! Get back to fighting controllers!_

I ignored my mind, and ran forward with jerky, halting steps. _This is my body! _I yelled, forcing myself to keep moving. Somehow, I managed to get underneath Jessie's shadow, while fighting the voice. The gorilla was also inside of my head, much more peaceful than the voice but still annoying. It was sending me this general '?' feeling, just accepting puzzlement. That was good, because I didn't think I could handle anything else inside of my head right then. I was about to go insane as it was.

Mary vaulted over the escalator railing at me, suddenly moving at full speed. A look of pure anger was on her face.

"I said I have her!" She yelled. With surprising force, she body checked me to the side and reached up to catch Jessie.

It was the biggest mistake of her life.

Jessie landed in Mary's arms, and time literally paused for a second. Jessie had a shocked look on her face, as if she had just grabbed a live wire. And Mary – for a second her hair shortened and faded from God knows what color to a mousy brown. Her violet eyes flashed brown. He teeth were dull enough to look at without sunglasses. The screaming, yelling, dominating voice in my head was blessedly quiet. For a split second she seemed to be – dare I say it – normal.

But then time started moving again, and she became the farthest thing from normal. Mary and Jessie both started glowing. _Freaking_ _glowing_.

(Oh no.) I moaned, staring at them in amazed horror. The world around them was falling away, as if some giant was tearing off chunks of matter and tossing them away into this green tinged nothingness.

Signs, clothes, food, people, and benches went flying away. The controllers dropped away. And then I felt myself slipping away, the world losing focus-


	13. Omnipotent? Guess not

**A/N: **Oh no, an Ellimist and Crayak chapter. Break out the thesaurus. ; P**  
**

**ELLIMIST**

Crayak and I floated over the golden fabric of space-time. No illusions, none of the filters that were necessary for mortal eyes. What we looked upon the pure substance of our galaxy. The galaxy that it appeared we no longer ruled.

Above the fabric were the anomalous threads, blatantly disobeying the laws of the universe. Crayak and I had attempted everything possible to make them bow to reality. We even formed a temporary alliance. But in the end, it was reality that was forced to bow.

We warped space, twisted time, and bent rules until they screamed. The end result was another timeline, the disbelief suspension stretched threadbare, and reality left clinging to the anomalies by a thread.

I gave them a planet. A place of origin for these freaks of time and space that came from nowhere. Crayak gave them the ability to shape shift at will, binding these otherwise bodiless creatures to a body, without restricting them to one species. Before this impressive piece of genetic engineering, they would just pop into being as any creature in known existence, and sometimes unknown.

It was a very frustrating experience. Omnipotent beings are used to getting their own way, and when we don't it can very trying.

Other things were happening to the galaxy, things outside of my realm of understanding and control. The collective intelligence and memories of the galaxy as a whole changed frequently, sometimes dropping dangerously close to zero. At unpredictable times, holes would open in space-time and swallow up some of our former pawns, only to spit them back out some random amount of time later. We were both keeping an eye out for the eminent return of Jake, Cassie, and Tobias, who had fallen through one sometime earlier.

Needless to say, Crayak and I were not happy with the Ary-Oos. We were reduced to mere spectators in our own game; almost all of our power was being channeled into the timeline to keep it from collapsing.

**WHY DO HUMANS HAVE SO MANY WAYS TO HURT THEMSELVES? **Crayak commented, as the human named Jessie jumped over the railing.

I SUPPOSE THE REASON IS SOMEWHERE IN THEIR EVOLUTION. I answered, as the potential animorph fell towards her doom. I sighed resignedly. THIS WILL BE THE THIRD ONE SHE'S KILLED THIS WEEK.

**WE REALLY SHOULD DO SOMETHING, SHOULDN'T WE? **Crayak said idly. He knew as well as I did that we could do nothing.

Instead, I looked to my – right, for lack of a better word. Kneeling protectively over a corner of space-time was Crayak's crony, Drode.

DRODE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? I snapped. I never have, nor will I ever, like that creature. He obeys Crayak only out of fear, which means his loyalty is questionable. Besides, his voice grates on my nerves.

"Nothing, _Master_." He said, standing up and rubbing his foot over the corner. "Do you require my services?"

NO. JUST FIND SOMETHING TO DO BESIDES LUKRING AROUND.

**ELLIMIST. **Crayak said. It was not yelled, or said louder than usual, but something in his voice made me turn around.

I was only fast enough to catch a glimpse. An anomalous thread fell, and was swallowed up in reality for a moment, before springing back up to float above reality again. A brief victory, but a very costly one. For in an instance, there was a pinpoint of impossible energy. A dot of concentrated chaos.

**THIS IS NOT GOOD.** Crayak said. I silently agreed, bracing myself, but nothing could have prepared me for what happened next. The pinpoint of energy blew outwards, and even at our rapid timerate it seemed to move at almost realtime. It slammed into our carefully arranged events. Dozens of threads were engulfed in the explosion, and they didn't darken or dim, they _disappeared._ The other threads that were connected to them started flailing wildly, and began unraveling themselves. Dozens of galaxies slid through, the planets rolling around the edge like so many marbles, then dropping through, lost forever. It was a hole, thousands of times larger than a _Sario Rip_. A hole in the fabric of the universe. 

I gaped, at a lost for words. Struggling, and failing, to come to terms with the fact that there was a hole, a _hole_, in _my_ galaxy.

**THE ARY-OOS MUST BE CONTAINED. **Crayak said. I looked and saw that he was right, reality was slipping away from them. 

The rules were bent as far as they could be bent without being broken. And if the rules had to be changed to make them obey, then control was only an illusion. In other words, we were powerless to stop them.

All Sue was about to break loose.


	14. Sue vs Yeerk: When aliens collide

**Visser 3**

(It is 2:00 am. I should be sleeping.) I snarled. (This better be one hell of a call.)

"I don't know _what_ it is, for the last time." Sub-Visser 17 said snappishly, increasing her pace to match my fast trot. We were headed towards the communications quarters, where several terrified low-ranks had received an unidentified transmission.

Apparently, I was the only one in the whole yeerk pool with a high enough ranking to give them the go ahead to open communications. Which was why I had been yanked out of bed a 2:00 am by Sub-Visser 17, who had been yanked out of bed by the head of communications an hour earlier.

Needless to say, we were both two very cranky yeerks. And since we were both too high of a ranking to lash out at each other, the next sanitation Gedd we saw was most likely going to get it.

"Through here." She said, leading me into a side corridor. I sleepily followed her, feeling the floor turn from carpet to rough and tasteless dirt under my hooves.

(Well?) I demanded, as we came to a stop outside of a rusted door at the end of the hallway. (Why are we stopping?)

She pointed at a red light above the door. "Never enter unless that light is off. Things can get very crazy in there. Trust me."

I waited, tapping my hoof impatiently. (How long?) I growled after thirty seconds.

"I don't know." She said, shrugging. "The record is- Well, maybe you don't want to know the record."

I glared at the red light with all four of my stalk eyes. It shined back.

(Go off.) I told it privately. It stayed red.

(Go off!) I commanded it. It defiantly continued to be red.

So I waited patiently.

I waited calmly.

I waited quietly.

It still didn't go off.

(That is i-) I began.

"Rrr-whee whee whee Rrr-Whee Whee Whee." A rough voice whistled, accompanied by the squeaking of a cleaning trolley.

I turned my stalk eyes around, and glared sinisterly at the gedd behind me. A pale green smock and matching gloves hung from it's bony form.

"Rrr-whee?" It whistled in a puzzled voice.

(Go clean somewhere else.) I commanded it. (We're in the middle of a small empire-wide emergency.)

"Rrr- I'm authorized to clean down here from eleven to-" It started, but then stopped talking abruptly. Having your head removed can do that to you.

A nasty look crossed Sub-Visser 17's face as some gedd blood flowed around her shoes. "Visser 3!"

(What?) I said, shrugging. (I'm sure- No, wait. Never mind, I just killed him.)

"Funny." Sub-Visser 17 said, rolling her eyes. God, if she was three ranks lower I would have shown her something even funnier. "Hopefully the reeking corpse doesn't draw every taxxon in the place."

(Is the light off yet?) I asked, wiping my tail blade on a dust rag.

"No." She growled, sucking her teeth. "If their transmission is so damn important, why are we-"

She trailed off, listening to a loud thumping noise coming from the other side of the door. After a few moment of scritching and scratching, the door flew open and a yellow blur whirled past us.

(Finally.) I said, ignoring the taxxon, which was making triumphant skreeing noises and feasting on Gedd guts. I rubbed my stalk eyes and walked through the door-

-and into chaos. Hork-Bajir and humans were whizzing around on human rolly-chair things, stretching various wires across the cavernous room and yelling things.

"-_Grash fleet 629 to rendezvous D-87!-" _

"-_And councilor seven is ordering a new host-" _

"-_And, then, like, he totally should have been-" _

"-_Visser 26 scheduled for feeding-"_

"-_Homeworld And redirect Empire Ship Madra to Earth orbit-" _

_"Visser 3 is here!" _

Everything went totally quiet. A few chairs slammed into each other, and a speeding Hork-Bajir toppled into a coil of wires. I guess the sight of me naturally commanded respect.

(What is so important,) I hissed quietly. (That I had to be woken up 2:00 am?)

A very, very large Hork-Bajir stood up. I immediately recognized him as Eoran 859, one of the few yeerks left who were with us from the beginning. After his host lost his left arm on the Taxxon homeworld (and survived, which is no mean feat when you're surrounded by taxxons), he retired to Communications. We weren't exactly friends, but we both respected each other. The younger yeerks in the empire had no idea what it took back then to rise in power. Nowadays you could find a planet covered with useless, backwards primates and they'd make you Visser 1.

"Esplin, we received unidentified transmissions on port 87." He said. "And at the same time, the radar center said the planet perimeter alarms went crazy. We need Visser-level clearance to establish contact."

Sub-Visser 17 grumbled something unintelligible as I trotted over to the console.

On the screen was a list of numbers, along with information for each port. Number 87 was flashing, with the words 'Unidentified connection type." to the right of it. I signaled the computer to connect, and the large screen flickered to life, with an empty blue bar in the center.

"Decoding transmission patterns." A mechanical voice said. "5 percent."

Great, more waiting. Tension filled the air, and everyone had abandoned all pretense of working. All eyes were on the blue bar.

"Loading 40 percent."

"Do you think there's time to get some coffee?" Sub-Visser 17 yawned. A Hork-Bajir female made shushing noises and handed her a thermos.

"Loading 69 percent."

I blinked my stalk eyes rapidly and assumed a powerful leader-like stance. Whatever was on the other side of that connection, the correct image had to be presented.

"Loading 89 percent."

I stood in front of the monitor and shuffled my hoof.

"Turn around, Turn around!" Eoran whispered hurriedly. "The camera is the other way, our first contact with an unknown alien species will be a close-up of your rear!"

"Loading 99 percent."

I twisted myself around, redirected my stalk eyes, and pushed Sub-Visser 17 out of the way just as a the connection was established. The monitor came to life, and all of my hearts stopped beating.

It was a picture of Earth. A live video-feed of the planet, our beautiful, host-rich, currently-inhabited-by-Visser 3 planet, surrounded by a fleet of monstrous ships. They were all diverse and intricately built, some sleek and jet black, some curved and golden, and other unique ships that looked like they belonged in an art archive. The one quality that they all did share was a rapidly rotating, mothership sized black cylinder on their bellies. And they made up only about a tenth of the ship mass. The other nine tenths probably consisted mainly of weapons.

"A humble and friendly greeting seems to be in order." Eoran said, clutching the console tightly for support.

Sub-Visser 17 seemed unfazed. "Please. Humble, Friendly, and Visser 3 don't even belong in the same sentence together. The planet will be a scorched lump of space coal within the next five minutes."

Eoran clamped a hand over her mouth as the direct connection kicked in. A pale face appeared, very similar to a human's. Long, gleaming, silver-white hair framed the thin face. The eyes were small and golden, and on either side were ears, large and pointed. The nose was small and delicate looking. I saw several human controllers go limp in their chairs. Well, most parts of them.

"Greetings, representatives of the yeerk empire." she said. The voice was light and musical, resonating perfectly through the room and causing my knees to wobble and tears to come to my eyes. What the – Andalites didn't _have_ tearducts!

(Habba-duh.) Alloran informed me privately. Thankfully, I wasn't relying on him for any conversational matters.

(Greetings, alien.) I said. (I can't help but notice that your anatomy resembles that of the dominant lifeform on this planet.)

"The resemblance is purposeful." She said, smiling. "We wish to blend in with the earthlings."

(Why?) I asked.

"Our endless war with the Beyta kind have left our numbers decimated." She said, with a slight frown. "We require the bodies of other species to reproduce. Humans are the perfect hosts."

(You use their bodies?) I demanded. (To lay your eggs in or something?)

"Close enough." She smiled.

(We require these humans.) I said. Sub-Visser 17, obviously fazed now, was making desperate gestures towards the screen with the massive fleet. Eoran held his head in his hand.

"Yet we require them also." She said. She smiled again. "Perhaps a compromise can be reached?"

(The yeerk empire makes no compromises.) I said.

"Are you quite sure?" She said, with a sorrowful look on her face.

Sub-Visser 17 make a sort of quiet, wrangled pleading noise.

(Yes.) I said.

"Then prepare to die, yeerk." She snarled darkly, and ended the transmission abruptly.

There was complete silence.

"Why?" Sub-Visser 17 moaned. "What possessed you to declare war on a species that has earth surrounded by warships? They could wipe out this place a thousand times over and still have enough firepower left to destroy half of Asia!"

(Shut up.) I said, marching for the exit. (Just shut up, before I do something that you're going to regret.)

I slammed the door behind me and stormed back to the main yeerk pool.

(ATTENTION!) I bellowed. (Everyone is to cease all other activities, and prepare to defend the yeerk pool!)

Everyone stopped moving.

(WELL?) I screamed.

"You have to direct them." Sub-Visser 17 sighed, coming up behind me. "They wouldn't know a planet defense plan if they infested it."

She looked expectantly at me.

(I missed the planetary defense training lesson.) I said helplessly. She shook her head.

"Scramble the bug fighters!" She yelled. "Man the dracon cannons! Seal the entrances! I want every yeerk inside of a host, now! And for emperor's sake, make sure you have a dracon beam!"

Yeerks began scrambling to obey her orders. I blinked.

"Well, maybe we can at least take a few of them with us." She muttered.

Slowly, the wheels in my tired brain began turning. (Sub-Visser, you'd be a genius if you weren't so stupid. Where's Jer-Yee? I need somebody to pilot my Blade ship.)

Sub-Visser 17 suddenly began coughing and rubbing her throat. She continued for several minutes, until she ran out of air and had to breathe.

(Is something wrong with your host?) I demanded. (Answer me!)

"Jer-Yee two has been missing for days, sir." She said, cringing away from me involuntarily. "And the hunt for his host has so far been unsuccessful."

(Didn't I order her found?) I yelled. (Who was in charge of this operation?)

"Iniss 52!" She said.

(Another one of Iniss's relatives.) I snorted. (Their whole spawn branch is pathetic. I'm going to pay a visit to the late Iniss 52, and when I come back there had better be a pilot waiting for me!) 


End file.
